Colleges defend humanities amid tight budgets


His father and two grandparents are doctors, and his mother and brother are both pharmaceutical scientists. He is double majoring in economics and plans to attend law school, a decision that eased his parents’ concerns about his philosophy studies because they see a legal career as a tangible way to support himself.

He sees it as a good use of his philosophy degree, too, though he says he would have been perfectly content to pursue teaching, public service or other fields to which many other philosophy majors gravitate.

To Susan Herbst, students shouldn’t have to choose between picking a field they love and one that offers them the best shot at a job. She believes humanities does both, and feels so strongly about it that she and her husband donated $100,000 this year to provide scholarships limited to students in those fields.

“The humanities are where people learn about ethics and values and critical thinking,” said Herbst, the president of the University of Connecticut. “The truth is that for all of these students going into the STEM fields or other social sciences or business, if they didn’t have the humanities, they don’t know why they’re doing what they do. The humanities really teach us how we’re supposed to live and why what we do matters.”

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